Thursday, May 26, 2011

Miss Rumphius- Bringing Books to Life

I've always liked the picture book, Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney for its beautiful illustrations and its gentle and sweet story. I especially like the message it conveys that we can all do something to make the world a more beautiful place. Miss Rumphius has three goals in life- to live by the sea, visit faraway places and to make the world a more beautiful place. This is the story about how she accomplishes each goal, especially the most difficult, and perhaps most important, goal of making the world more beautiful by sowing lupine seeds anywhere and everywhere.

With this book in mind, I purchased lupine seeds last summer on our trip to Maine.

A few days ago, I read the story to the children and we sowed our very own lupine seeds. We planted some in our children's garden and some in a local park. We mixed the seeds with a little dirt and then scattered the mixture everywhere. We can't wait to see what comes up!

Oh Anna! This is one of my favorite books too. When I was teaching I always used to read this on Grandparent's day. Then I had my students do activities based on the story. One was planting lupine seeds! We ate "dirt" (or chocolate pudding) for snack with gummy worms, etc. Your post brings back such fun memories. Now I will have to read it to my own children and ask them what we can do to make the world a more beautiful place! Love the seeds you found too. What beautiful packaging!

Lupine is one of Al's favorite flowers. Ours didn't survive last winter. They should flourish where you are!I look forward to enjoying them when we visit! The book looks sweet. Great shot of Harris broadcasting seeds.